What Really Dumb Things did You do as a Kid?

[Calvin19 0]

Anyone ever had their hearing temporaraly blown out?

yeah, its fun. Dry Ice bomb in a Fiberglass reinforced 2liter bottle, with 3 mintue epoxy on the screw cap. wouldnt have been that bad, but Nick was holding the bottle underneath hot water in his moms kitchen. i was standing behind him. he still has a few shards of plastic and glass in his hand, and i cant hear to well out of my left ear. we had to pay for the kitchen window, and the hospital deductable onthat one. funny though, that was only 5 years ago...

-SPACE-

[StreetScooby 5]

I've fired off 45s without ear protection (14 years old?) I have ringing-in-the-ears to this day.

During college, I was taking a chemical engineering class on vapor/liquid equilibrium. We were learning a thing called "excess volumes", i.e., you mix two liquids and end up with more liquid than you started with. That Friday night, I went out with Martin and Phil in Phil's Cutlass. Got a gallon milk jug, a fifth of vodka, and a fifth of Tom Collins mix. Poured everything in at once, shook it twice, and the f'ing thing literally BLEW UP on me. I had a firm grip on excess volumes after that night.

We are all engines of karma

[Thanatos340 1]

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I've fired off 45s without ear protection (14 years old?) I have ringing-in-the-ears to this day.

I did that this week. Only a few Rounds though.

Good thing I dont hear so well or else it might have been loud.


Wanna hear really loud, try firing a 45 from inside a moving car. Now THAT is Loud..

[pmw515 0]

my neighbors had a big yard with a huge gully/ ditch in the backyard. The walls of it were close to vertical, and there was a tree in the middle at the top with a branch hanging over the side. I had just gotten a new bike for christmas- a schwin- the kind my parents would've killed to have as children.
anyway, on a dare, i rode my bike down into the gully and got it stuck on the tree branch; I then fell 10 ft to the ground flat on my back and knocked my breath out. Thank God my parents never found out.

[NWFlyer 2]

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I'm starting to think that skydivers were hellions when they were kids.

Oh hell no. Except for the "dumb" stuff that everyone in our generation did (riding a bike without a helmet, climbing on and jumping on all manner of playground equipment, taking super-fast plastic sleds down steep hills), I did not do dumb stuff as a kid.

In fact, I was far too risk-averse. I was a good kid who hated to get in trouble. The prospect of facing an authority figure and getting in trouble just did not sit well with my very shy self (yes, I really was a shy kid). So I almost always played by the rules and tried to make as few waves as possible.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[lawrocket 3]

I can mention more stupid stuff. Preschool was loaded with stupid things.

I was like a mix between Pinky and The Brain, only instead of plotting to take over the world, I plotted to escape. See, there was a TG&Y drug store visible from the place, and that was where I could go buy candy.

One of them was through use of a spork - those plastic spoon/forks that we kids know so well. I smuggled one over by the wall and started digging an escape tunnel. The teacher found it and, unfortunately put and end to that.

I did actually end up a bloody mess from it once. That morning, I had conned both of my parents for lunch money, so I was set in having enough for M&M's. TG&Y, here I come!

There was a cinderblock wall about 6 feet tall. Obviously, if I could get over that wall, I'd be free and clear. What made the most sense to me (hey, like many things from my childhood, it made sense at the time) was to build up enough speed and velocity to hurl myself over the walls. The swings were perfect for that - and, they were close enough to the wall. The results are predictable to my adult self. The teacher saw me on about my third attempt, and I guess I was bruised, scraped and bloodied from it.

And there was the time that decided the television was thirsty so I gave it a drink of water.

Oh, and the time I saw fire in the wall furnace so I put the pilot light out by peeing on it. (I guess the smell lingered for a few weeks).

Or, the time I set my mm's purse on fire. I don't remember that one, though my mom does. I was only two.

Oh, and there is also an explanation for why the hall had a door installed with a locking mechanism up high on it to keep me from getting to the kitchen of living room in the middle of the night. Something about me emptying out the refrigerator and mixing 5 pounds of flour with a couple of gallons of milk to make paste like I did at school.

How can I forget the time when I thought the Corvette that my dad had just finished restoring needed some pin stripes to make it look really good. (According to my mom, that was the only time she never saw my dad act pissed off at something I did - apparently, he recognized that any attempt at speaking with me about it would have resulted in a murder trial with a damned good insanity defense)

I think my childhood could compare with walt's adult life for the fun and interesting experiences that we got ourselves into.

Edited to add: later in life, I came to fear but accept that the reason for the uproarious laughter coming from the mothers at the soccer games (I've got younger brothers 10, 17 and 19 years younger than me) was the result of my mom telling them stories of my childhood. She always waited for the, "Your son is such a polite young man." Oh, boy, she kept people in tears...

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[MC208B 0]

jumped off the hanger at my granddads airport yelling "geronamo!"

[waltappel 1]

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So I almost always played by the rules and tried to make as few waves as possible.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

LOL!!!



ROTFLMAO!!!!

Wow, that was a GREAT one!!

Uh, you *were* kidding, weren't you?

Walt

[kallend 1,679]

Made a 10-day 550 mile bicycle trip across England and Wales with two other 15 year olds and no adults (our parents must have been crazy to agree to this).

Made rocket fuel because Estes was not yet in existence.

Made orthophosphoric acid by heating red phosphorus with concentrated nitric acid.

Made hydrofluoric acid.

Tried firebreathing and burned off my eyebrows.

I'm surprised I reached adulthood with all my limbs and my eyes intact.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[NWFlyer 2]

Deadly serious, Walt. I was a boring kid. Not a total goody two-shoes (I could be trusted not to tattle) but most of the time I also didn't bother getting in trouble myself.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[MF42 0]

Lots of fire, lots of explosions, and I've never yet had a serious burn. My hearing is bad and getting worse, though.

Bicycles...never got into any of the cool tricks really; I was just a simple speed freak. Loved passing cars on one good downhill stretch on the highway. No helmet, of course. Who had helmets?

Blades...throwing knives, throwing stars, machetes, tomahawks, axes, swords, butterfly knives, etc. Only one notable scar from all those.

Matt

[Samurai136 0]

Anyone remember bang snaps?

Call it youthful curiousity... I determined that they would 'detonate' when compressed between two hard surfaces. Say for instance, door hinges or toilet seat hinges. No need to throw them at the ground!

I decided to play a prank on my parents and set a few of them up in the the toilet seat hinge in their private bathroom.
A few days later my mother asked me if I was one one who had placed them there... "Yes, mother, it was me."
Then she informed me that they had been detonated by my 4 year old brother who had lifted the toilet seat to take a leak at 2am. Scared the bujesus out of him.

My BangSnaps were confiscated and shortly there after our neighborhood was a bang snap free zone. It seems the story got out to the other parents...

*sigh* those were good times...

"Buttons aren't toys." - Trillian
Ken

[peggs82 0]

For some reason I thought my dad's brand new car needed washed....with rocks

Had the equivlant of a low pull contest on our bikes... Lets go to the top of this hill and see who the last person to stop is That one resulted in my first aireal experience, and my first emergency room visit.

When I was really young, I held in my hand a candle which had been burning for quite some time. "Hmmmm" I thought to my self, "I wonder what the bottom of this candel looks like?" As I turn it over towards myself, the burning skin on my lap quickly taught me that candle wax is extrememly hot.

[lawrocket 3]

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Anyone remember bang snaps?

Yeah, I remember them. I, um, uh, don't remember being at Disneyland once dropping them off of the Skyway between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland to the crowd below, though I understand that happened once. It must have been one of the other Skyway cars.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[tetra316 0]

Couple things I readily remember: walking barefoot on hot coals, thinking if I walked fast enought I wouldn't get burned. Walking, and running on top of a bridges guardrail about 50 above the water. Other than that I was an angel.

[kris2extreme 0]

I did some pretty dumb stuff as well.

Lots of fire, gasoline, explosives. Homemade gunpowder, thermite, napalm. Set a couple of old run-down abandoned buildings on fire, set the woods on fire numerous times. My buddy had a sloped concrete pathway that we would pour gasoline down (about 100 feet long), light it on fire, and then haul ass through it on rollerblades, bicycles, skateboards, etc... We constantly had no leg hair.
Melting plastic also NEVER got old... many scars and burns from that.

The fully automatic BB gun was fun for a while, as were the pellet guns, bow and arrows, blowguns, machetes, throwing knives, ninja-stars, etc.

Never any broken bones or ER visits (knock on wood), but tetanus shots were a very common thing in my childhood. We also once jumped off the top of a building (one of the abandoned ones we later burnt down) into a large pile of pine-needs/sticks/etc... one stick decided to puncture into the side of my ankle and got all infected and swole up to about twice its normal size... that was about as bad as it got.

As you can imagine... I spent many childhood summers and weekends stuck at the house grounded... *sigh* Just think what would've happened if we didn't have parents that cared.

[kbordson 8]

Hitchhiking home from school when I was 5 or 6

Over head pass on a car (climbed out the passenger side window and went over the roof to climb in the rear window on the drivers side)... oh yeah... at 55mph.

Threw jarts straight up... but who didn't?!

Pulled in a sled behind a snowmobile.... fun until the turns (then white/blue/white/blue/red)

Jumped from the roof of the house to the roof of the garage (12 feet... but there was a height difference that made it more easy)

Asphyxiation games (hyperventilating then putting pressure on the chest)

Must have some very annoyed guardian angel thinking "WTF is she going to do next?!"

[skydivermom 0]

Can't recall that many, but here they are:

Flushed apple cores down the toilet at Grandma's house

Fed the goldfish bacon and eggs

...and one I will NEVER forget....Telling my mom "you can't tell ME what to do"

Mrs. WaltAppel

All things work together for good to them that love God...Romans 8:28

[Samurai136 0]

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Pulled in a sled behind a snowmobile.... fun until the turns (then white/blue/white/blue/red)

Power Sledding- Try it behind an RX7

"Buttons aren't toys." - Trillian
Ken

[caress 0]

Okay here goes...

I got in big trouble the day I threw a snail into my best friends brothers mouth.

I walked into the ocean, when I was little, and was brought back out by 2 scuba divers.

I made a catapult in my backyard and hit myself in the head with a brick

I was in nursery school and we went to the dairy to see cows and we were watching a demo on the milking part. I unfortunatly was standing behind the cow and it shit on my shoe and I started kicking my foot around which flung shit on everyone else

When I was about 7, I used to poke holes with a pin in my parents rubbers in hopes of getting a little brother or sister to pick on instead of being the one that got picked on.

The first time I shaved my legs I cut my shin all the way up to my knee. That was a glamorous scab!

The first time I answered the phone for my parents I told a preacher that my dad was taking a shit!

visiting relatives, I purposely shook a soda and opened it in her kitchen-whatta brat huh?

okay enough right? I was born a child bound for chaos and disaster-Caress

I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being
right.

[Scoop 0]

Living near a steep hill the obvious idea was to make ramps at the bottom and jump them on our bikes. No matter how many times we went straight up and landed down, bashing our head, legs, chin, balls on the bars we still kept trying, until they built a lake/reservoir thingy with a pier and we just used to ride down that and do backflips off a ramp we made into the water

[moodyskydiver 0]

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Wanna hear really loud, try firing a 45 from inside a moving car. Now THAT is Loud

Yeah I've been there,except it was a double barreled shotgun... fired both barrels simultaneously.Needless to say I couldnt hear much for a day or so.But I was a teenager when that happened.

My younger exploits are:
BB gun fights (we never even heard of or thought about any kind of eye or body protection)
Bottle rocket fights
Roman Candle fights
Firecracker fights..usually involving holding a BlackCat firecracker until the fuse was REALLY short and then throwing it at each other.
Burying M80s in fireant beds and then wondering why we're covered in ants that were raining down upon us.
playing tarzan with my dad's bullwhip (from his rodeo days) and then wondering why A) the whip broke and B) the pole in the closet where I'd taken down all my parents clothes to do said stunt hadnt held either.
Trying to hang off of a towel rack in the bathroom which promptly broke off of the wall
Broke a window in the garage door while playing "wall ball" with a tennis racket and tennis ball
Broke out our back sliding glass door with a BB gun because I didnt understand the concept that a BB could ricochet off of the concret patio.
Finding out that my sister's aerosol hairspray and a cigarette lighter makes a cool flamethrower.
Shooting the next door neighbor's back fence with a BB gun b/c the neighbors behind them had obnoxious dogs who'd get out and get in our yard.So when I'd shoot the fence,they'd start barking and their owner would come out and yell at them.Eventually after several months of this all the dogs got shock collars.
Deciding I was a samauri and,needing a sword,liberated my dad's machete from the garage and ended up cutting up/scarring all the trees in the backyard.My dad wasnt pleased.
Needing stuff to take food into my treehouse,I grabbed the first thing I saw,which happened to be my mom's best silverware and some of her china..luckily it wasnt her 'best' china or her heirloom china b/c it ended up staying up there and getting worn by the elements.
Driving a golfcart (w/no speed governor) into a tree
Driving a 4wheeler through my grandfather's freshly dug stocktank on a rainy day before they filled it with water and fish.hehe! my mom had to wash our clothes twice to get all the mud out!
Playing on the roof of my grandfather's convenience store and his diner..scared the shit out of my mother and grandmother.
Playing on a swingset as high as possible and then jumping out of the swing at its highest point before it descended.
Standing on one arm of the couch and trying to do a backflip or frontflip off of it and onto the couch cushions w/o hitting the other arm of the couch.
Giving my sister's goldfish a "bubblebath" with liquid handsoap.(it was one of those black and gold type gold fish..I was young and just thought its black spots were dirt,so I was just trying to give him a bath b/c, in my young mind, I thought he was 'dirty'!)Ofcourse that was followed by a toilet funeral.
Spitting in my sister's makeup after she pissed me off a few times.Then watching with a smile as she put on her makeup to get ready for school.
Giving my sister's toothbrush a "swirly" in the toilet for the same reason and then smiling while watching her brush her teeth.
Jumping off a two story hayloft into the hay below...one time only to find a family a opossums in the hay!I dont know who was more scared,them or us.haha!
Tons more..but I'll stop with these for now.

"...just an earthbound misfit, I."

[jakee 1,279]

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Bicycles...never got into any of the cool tricks really; I was just a simple speed freak. Loved passing cars on one good downhill stretch on the highway. No helmet, of course. Who had helmets?

Hehe, yeah plenty of steep hills near me. Of course the challenge is to carry the maximum speed through the turns by starting on the outside and hitting the apex just right. Of these are single lane roads. With high hedges. So they were completely blind corners.

Actually now that I thnk about it I still haven't grown out of that habit!

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[MrFreefall383 0]

I've only done a few really stupid things in my life, most of which below the age of 12 luckily enough. I used to blow things up in the back yard, usually hidden in the bushes. My younger brothers were really into that kind of stuff, I was more into the control of such dangerous materials through rocketry and other similar endeavors. When the standard up and down of rocketry got boring, we'd scrape a new engine cylinder clean of propellant, dump it in a small tinfoil wrapping, shove a fuse in it, and tuck it into the torso of a GI Joe. Needless to say, kaboom was fun, so we did it regularly. Thankfully no one got hurt, but I still love blowing things up, only now it's even more dangerous, and the explosions are usually bigger. But they're far more rare, as responsibility usually trumps fun.

"If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche

[QuickDraw 0]

When I was about 7 or eight years old I found a pool ball (the eightball to be exact)
I had it for a few days and tried to see if I could break it.

I threw it as hard as I could at the ground.. which was a cobbled surface.
The eightball hit me square in my right eye socket rendering me almost blind for about 4 days.

Which was about when the bruising came out, to give me the king of all black eye's.

I was also electrocuted by overhead powerlines on a railway about a year later
& spent about 2 months in hospital.

-- Hope you don't die. --

I'm fucking winning